Report on the ceremony awarding the Righteous medal to Pastor Pierre Gagnier and his wife Hélène
January 18, 2012
Testimony of Michel Picard (read by Thomas, great-grandson of Pierre and Hélène Gagnier)
Listen to the speech
My sister was nine. I was twelve. I was a Scout. After a mysterious discussion between my troop leader and our parents, they told us: “If anything happens, go and see him immediately.”
An abstract though solemn instruction, to which we paid only obedient attention until February 1st, 1943.
I was coming home from school when my little sister, who had got home first, ran towards me in tears and cried out, breathless: “We have to go to your leader’s!” Seals had been put on the door of the empty flat.
Monsieur Charpentier (who, unbeknown to us, was in the Resistance – he would be wounded at the Liberation) took us straight to Pastor Gagnier. Of our stay on boulevard Dubouchage I remember, alas, only the kindness with which we were received, and sleeping on the dining-room carpet.
The very next day, the pastor found us foster families, the Longs and the Durands, who put us up for three or four weeks.
Then, thanks to the Durands, who had farming relatives, we were taken in by the Laurencins and the Bouviers in a small village in the Dauphiné. We stayed with them for a year and a half (until our father’s sister, who had joined General de Gaulle in London, was able to look after us).
So allow me today to associate with Pastor Gagnier all the people who, with him, formed this admirable chain of solidarity: Monsieur Charpentier, the Long and Durand families, and above all our “uncles and aunties” in the village of Eydoche, the Laurencins and the Bouviers.
Yet his role was crucial, decisive. Would my sister and I have survived if he had not been there?
So I rejoice deeply at the honour being paid to him today and, filled with the most sincere gratitude, I join all of you for this ceremony.
Michel Picard
Letter from Sister Paula (Michel Picard’s sister)
I have just received the invitation to the presentation of the medal to Pastor Gagnier and will be with you in thought and prayer. My brother will be with you too, as he told me on the phone, through the text he has given you as his testimony, and in thought as well.
I remain deeply grateful to your father, Monsieur Gagnier, and your name alone touches my heart, for I will never forget his welcome and how, thanks to him, we were taken in and hidden by foster families, and so saved from arrest and deportation.
Please believe that I am close to you in heart and united with you in prayer.
Sister Paula